Featured Handmade Artist- fantasian
Hello! Happy Thursday! Today I'd like to introduce you to another amazingly talented etsy artist--
fantasian. Her one of a kind jewelry is carefully designed and handcrafted using sterling silver and gold-filled wire. I am in LOVE with her jewelry. I think my favorite has to be the
Elegant Wire Wrapped Green Abalone Shell Pendant. I love the green color abalone and the wire wrapping is so intricate!!!
Check out some other pieces from her shop:
Who are you, and where are you from and what do you do?
Hello! I’m a 25 year old mechanical engineer living in Palo Alto, CA. I also happen to be doing graduate school part time getting my masters degree, which makes my life quite hectic and busy! I decided to open up an Etsy shop about a month ago just after my summer vacation started, since I wanted to further pursue a hobby that didn’t involve staring at screens.
How long have you been creating?
I first started making jewelry about 5 years ago back when I was in college. During my senior year I was finally starting to get into fashion and beginning to notice what people were wearing around me. But I didn’t have much money back then, being a student and all, so I decided it would be more fun and a lot cheaper to design and make my own jewelry. I’ve also dabbled in quite a lot of other crafts as well, from lamp working and glass blowing to sewing, graphic design and laser cutting.
What is behind your inspiration for making your pieces?
All kinds of things! Sometimes I get inspired from more typical sources like looking at other artists and sellers out there, but some are completely random. For example, a couple weeks ago I went scuba diving and totally fell in love with the kelp forest I saw, so I made a pair of earrings loosely based on it. Other fun, but often unusual, places I get inspiration from are video games and movies. I’ll sometimes stop and wonder, “what kind of jewelry piece would <fantasy character> want to wear?” and just go from there. I pretty much never plan out my designs in advance, so whatever I’ve been exposed to most recently often has a huge influence on the stuff I make.
What is your dream job?
My current job is pretty awesome, but someday I think I’d want to work in a job that gave me more creative freedom and involved more hands-on work. Unfortunately as an engineer, you generally move away from that as you climb the ladder, so I may need to find alternative career paths. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll dedicate myself to being a crafts person and artist full time instead.
Please describe your creative process
The only bit of planning I really do when it comes to creating is looking at what I currently have in my Etsy shop and thinking about what additional variety I can add to it. Then I’ll go through my inventory and see what colors, beads and other items I have. Once I’ve picked out a couple stones and figured out what type of jewelry I want to make, I just kind of start improvising and seeing what comes out. Often this works wonders and I get really lovely pieces that can trace their inspiration to things I’ve done or seen recently, and others are completely new and unexpected. And sometime it just totally doesn’t work and I end up wasting some materials, but I recycle and reuse what I can and often these failures are the stepping stones towards later pieces.
What item would you be secretly heartbroken if it sold?
To be honest, I don’t think there are any! I’ve been making jewelry for a while now, often as gifts, so I don’t get very attached to the things I make. And I’ll always have the pictures to look back on if I do get a little nostalgic for something.
Where do you promote your work?
Most of my friends actually don’t know yet that I have an Etsy store. I mainly do my promotion online on Twitter, Facebook and my blog. Here are the links in case you want to check them out:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fantasian_angel
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile/fantasianjewelry
Blog: http://fantasianangel.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much!!! I hope you all have an opprotunity to check out fantasian's etsy shop!!!
Check out some other pieces from her shop:
Who are you, and where are you from and what do you do?
Hello! I’m a 25 year old mechanical engineer living in Palo Alto, CA. I also happen to be doing graduate school part time getting my masters degree, which makes my life quite hectic and busy! I decided to open up an Etsy shop about a month ago just after my summer vacation started, since I wanted to further pursue a hobby that didn’t involve staring at screens.
How long have you been creating?
I first started making jewelry about 5 years ago back when I was in college. During my senior year I was finally starting to get into fashion and beginning to notice what people were wearing around me. But I didn’t have much money back then, being a student and all, so I decided it would be more fun and a lot cheaper to design and make my own jewelry. I’ve also dabbled in quite a lot of other crafts as well, from lamp working and glass blowing to sewing, graphic design and laser cutting.
What is behind your inspiration for making your pieces?
All kinds of things! Sometimes I get inspired from more typical sources like looking at other artists and sellers out there, but some are completely random. For example, a couple weeks ago I went scuba diving and totally fell in love with the kelp forest I saw, so I made a pair of earrings loosely based on it. Other fun, but often unusual, places I get inspiration from are video games and movies. I’ll sometimes stop and wonder, “what kind of jewelry piece would <fantasy character> want to wear?” and just go from there. I pretty much never plan out my designs in advance, so whatever I’ve been exposed to most recently often has a huge influence on the stuff I make.
What is your dream job?
My current job is pretty awesome, but someday I think I’d want to work in a job that gave me more creative freedom and involved more hands-on work. Unfortunately as an engineer, you generally move away from that as you climb the ladder, so I may need to find alternative career paths. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll dedicate myself to being a crafts person and artist full time instead.
Please describe your creative process
The only bit of planning I really do when it comes to creating is looking at what I currently have in my Etsy shop and thinking about what additional variety I can add to it. Then I’ll go through my inventory and see what colors, beads and other items I have. Once I’ve picked out a couple stones and figured out what type of jewelry I want to make, I just kind of start improvising and seeing what comes out. Often this works wonders and I get really lovely pieces that can trace their inspiration to things I’ve done or seen recently, and others are completely new and unexpected. And sometime it just totally doesn’t work and I end up wasting some materials, but I recycle and reuse what I can and often these failures are the stepping stones towards later pieces.
What item would you be secretly heartbroken if it sold?
To be honest, I don’t think there are any! I’ve been making jewelry for a while now, often as gifts, so I don’t get very attached to the things I make. And I’ll always have the pictures to look back on if I do get a little nostalgic for something.
Where do you promote your work?
Most of my friends actually don’t know yet that I have an Etsy store. I mainly do my promotion online on Twitter, Facebook and my blog. Here are the links in case you want to check them out:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fantasian_angel
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile/fantasianjewelry
Blog: http://fantasianangel.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much!!! I hope you all have an opprotunity to check out fantasian's etsy shop!!!